171. The intervention of medical education combined with acupuncture on the emotional and social functions of patients with mild mental disorders

Abstract Background Patients with Mild Mental Disorders (MMD) have obvious impairments in emotional regulation, social interaction and other aspects. Statistics show that about 3.8% of the population is affected by MMD, of which 70% are accompanied by depressive symptoms. Identifying core indicators that can early predict the improvement or deterioration of emotional and social functions is of great significance for optimizing the medical education combined with acupuncture intervention program. MMD patients are often accompanied by low willingness to social interaction and poor role adaptation, which are considered key incentives for functional limitations. Medical education combined with acupuncture intervention can improve emotional state and social adaptability through the popularization of medical knowledge and the regulation of acupuncture meridians. Therefore, this study analyzed the improvement effect of medical education combined with acupuncture on the emotion and social function of MMD patients through standardized scale evaluation, and assessed its practical effect on depressive mood, anxiety and social function recovery, so as to provide empirical basis for early comprehensive non-pharmaceutical intervention. Methods A total of 120 patients clinically diagnosed with MMD were enrolled, aged 18-45 years. Participants were randomly divided into the intervention group (n = 60) and the control group (n = 60). The intervention group received 12-week medical education combined with acupuncture intervention, 5 times a week, 60 minutes each time, including mental health knowledge education and targeted acupuncture conditioning. The control group only received routine health education and daily psychological support. Emotional assessment was conducted using the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) before intervention (T0), during intervention (Week 6, T1) and after intervention (Week 12, T2). Repeated measures analysis of variance was used for statistical analysis, with the significance level set at p<.05, and Cohen’s d effect size was calculated to evaluate the intervention effect. Results The total SDS score of the intervention group decreased from 58.6 ± 4.9 at T0 to 41.2 ± 4.3 at T2 (p<.001, d = 3.02), and the total SAS score decreased from 56.8 ± 5.1 at T0 to 40.5 ± 4.5 at T2 (p<.001, d = 2.95). Among them, the depressive mood subscale, anxiety somatization subscale and cognitive impairment subscale all showed significant improvement (p<.01). In contrast, the SDS and SAS scores of the control group had no significant change from T0 to T2 (p>.05). Repeated measures analysis of variance further verified that the interaction between intervention time and group was significant (SDS: F = 20.35, p<.001; SAS: F = 19.68, p<.001). Discussion After 12-week medical education combined with acupuncture intervention, MMD patients showed significant improvement in both emotional state and social function. The SDS and SAS scores of the intervention group decreased significantly, and emotional regulation ability and social adaptability improved simultaneously, with a significantly better improvement amplitude than the control group. The results indicate that medical education combined with acupuncture can effectively improve the emotional problems and social function deficits of MMD patients, providing a quantifiable basis for early clinical comprehensive intervention. Future studies can further explore the optimization of intervention cycle and the differences in acupuncture point combinations to refine intervention strategies and support the design of individualized intervention programs.